What we’re watching today:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that an Israeli team would be traveling to the United States to - per the Jerusalem Post - 'work on a final status nuclear deal with Iran,' amid growing criticism of moves by the Obama administration to lock Israel out of months of previous negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Netanyahu made the statements at a meeting of his Likud party today, also emphasizing that Israel's position would be oriented toward promoting and securing a comprehensive agreement that "must bring about one outcome: the dismantling of Iran's military nuclear capability." The Israeli prime minister had earlier spoken with President Barack Obama on Sundayregarding the details of this weekend's interim agreement between the P5+1 and Iran. A White House readout of the call indicated that Obama told Netanyahu "that he wants the United States and Israel to begin consultations immediately regarding [U.S.] efforts to negotiate a comprehensive solution."

News broke mid-Monday that the final details of this weekend's interim agreement between the P5+1 and Iran had not yet been agreed upon, and that the six month period during which Iran is expected to negotiate over a comprehensive deal - and during which U.S. negotiators had committed to preventing the imposition of new nuclear-related sanctions - had not yet started. Evaluating the development, The Hill pointedly noted that the interim deal's announcement had nonetheless already boosted Iran's economic position, "with the Iran's currency, the rial, jumping three percent on Sunday and oil markets sagging in expectation of increased supply." News also emerged today that the European Union may remove certain sanctions on Tehran within weeks. The sum of the developments may deepen worries that asymmetries built into the interim deal - the terms of which only require Iran to 'freeze' its nuclear program as-is, but provide irreversible concessions to Tehran - may allow the Islamic republic to pocket interim concessions and eventually walk away from further negotiations. Most straightforwardly, Iran will get to pocket the billions in financial relief its gets, which Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), estimated this weekend would ultimately amount to roughly $20 billion. Dubowitz and FDD senior fellow Orde Kittrie today outlined how "the agreement greatly weakens Western economic sanctions" inasmuch as "Iranian sanctions-busters will be in position to exploit the changing market psychology and newly created pathways to reap billions of additional dollars in economic relief beyond those projected by the Obama administration." The New York Times echoed the point, conveying the concerns of critics in "Congress, the Arab world and Israel" to the effect that "the roughly $100 billion in remaining sanctions will gradually be whittled away [by wily] middlemen, Chinese eager for energy sources and Europeans looking for a way back to the old days." Iran may calculate that the direct injection of capital, coupled with the economic benefits of currency gains, are sufficient to wait for the disintegration of the international community's sanctions regime.

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum are echoing deep skepticism expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding this weekend's interim deal between the P5+1 and Iran, after Netanyahu blasted the agreement as a "historic mistake" and committed Jerusalem to acting in the "diplomatic arena" and "in other areas" to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who as head of Israel's center-left Hatnuah party ran against Netanyahu and his Likud party in the last elections, described the agreement as a "terrible deal that will threaten not only us, but the entire world." Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, who as head of Israel's center-right Jewish Home party also ran against Netanyahu, not only described the agreement as a "bad deal" but emphasized that it would "increase the need for Israeli [military] action." Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz, from Netanyahu's own Likud party, declared that "the present agreement could actually bring Iran closer to building the bomb."

A dispute over the degree to which Iran won enrichment concessions in this weekend's interim deal has pitted Iran and Russia on one hand against the U.S. and Britain on the other, and is threatening to severely complicate talks aimed at achieving a comprehensive agreement over Tehran's nuclear program. Iranian leader - including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif - boasted over the weekend that the U.S. had caved on its long-standing position that Iran would not be permitted to enrich uranium under a final accord. The U.S. and Britain both flatly denied Iran's interpretation. The interim language, however, describes a future comprehensive solution as involving "a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program." Observers including the Washington Post's Jackson Diehl, the Post's David Ignatius, and the Daily Beast's Eli Lake all noted that a plain reading of the language favors the Iranian interpretation. The diverging interpretations will present a challenge for U.S. diplomats pursuing a comprehensive deal. The U.S. will either have to compel Iran to change its position, which will be difficult inasmuch Iranian leaders are trumpeting the language as a core victory, or the U.S. will have to concede Iran’s position, abrogating assurances made by the administration to U.S. lawmakers and allies, and giving up on half a dozen United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to suspend enrichment. In 2009 the New York Times reported that "administration officials... said that any new American policy would ultimately require Iran to cease enrichment, as demanded by several United Nations Security Council resolutions." In 2010 then-White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs ruled out allowing Iran to enrich because "if the Iranians are sincere in a peaceful program, their needs can be met without undertaking its own enrichment program, which call into question its motives." The same year Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley emphasized that Iran "continues to enrich uranium and has failed to suspend its enrichment program as has been called for in UN Security Council resolutions; that’s our core concern." The administration's lead negotiator Wendy Sherman told Congress as recently as last month that "the President has circumscribed what he means by the Iranian people having access… access, not right, but access to peaceful nuclear energy in the context of meeting its obligations."

Analysts: Israel may be "forced to react to a spectacular attack" if Sinai Peninsula chaos deepens

House Foreign Affairs Committee chair slams National Iranian American Council representative over Iran regime "propaganda"

New analysis: Iran to reach "critical capability" by 2014, will be able to go nuclear undetected

What we’re watching today:

Israeli officials this week expressed broad hopes that relaunching negotiations will enable a final status agreement that would see the creation of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Jewish state.Tzipi Livni, Jerusalem's chief negotiator, acknowledged that "there is a lot of cynicism and skepticism and pessimism" about talks, but emphasized that "by relaunching the negotiations we can recreate hope for Israelis and Palestinians." Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described preliminary talks that had taken place in Washington, D.C. as "very positive." Michael Ratney, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, told reporters today that while Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will now seek to close a peace deal in nine months, the date is a target rather than a deadline.

Unknown gunmen have killed at least 30 people and injured over 150 in the Sinai Peninsula since June 30, amid an army campaign to disrupt jihadists in the Egyptian-controlled territory. Attacks on Egyptian soldiers and civilians are now occurring daily, and the Washington Post this week raised fears that "the roots of a violent insurgency are burrowing fast into the sands" of the Sinai. Analysts have begun to pivot to analyzing the potential regional consequences of continued destabilization in the territory. The National Journal recently noted that extremists are overrunning the area, including "Hamas militants from neighboring Gaza." Washington Institute scholar Aaron Zelin described a sharp uptick in jihadist chatter about training camps in the Sinai, while Retired Maj. Aviv Oreg, former chief of the Israeli military intelligence’s global jihad desk, called the terrain "the Tora Bora of the Sinai Peninsula." The National Journal concluded that Israel may be "forced to react to a spectacular attack" if the anarchy widens and jihadists increase the tempo and accuracy of their attacks against Israel.

Rep. Ed Royce yesterday rebuked a woman identifying herself as representing the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) for disseminating what the California Republican, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described as Iranian "propaganda." At a Capitol Hill briefing yesterday hosted by The Israel Project, NIAC intern Samira Damavandi confronted the panelists - who also included Rep. Ted Deutch and Rep. Eliot Engel - with claims that Royce characterized as "propaganda put out by the Iranian regime." Damavandi asserted that U.S. sanctions were preventing the Iranian people from receiving "medicine and food," and Royce responded that in fact Iran has more access to medicine now than it has had at any other time in the recent past. Royce went on to say that "it is concerning that propaganda is circulating here in the U.S. by some who speak in favor of the policies taken by the regime." NIAC chief Trita Parsi has been accused of being what the Weekly Standard described as "an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Parsi had filed a defamation suit against U.S.-based Iranian journalist Hassan Daioleslam for describing NIAC and Parsi as "key players in the lobby enterprise of Tehran’s ayatollahs in the United States." The court found that interpretations presented by Daioleslam in support of his claims didn't distort the underlying meaning of Parsi’s writings.

An analysis posted online earlier this week by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) concludes that Iran is "expected to achieve a critical [nuclear] capability in mid-2014," which the organization defines "as the technical capability to produce sufficient weapon-grade uranium from its safeguarded stocks of low enriched uranium for a nuclear explosive, without being detected." The technical question at stake involves the amount of time it would take Iran to dash across the nuclear finish line, once a political decision is made to do so. The political question at stake is over whether that time window would be sufficiently wide enough to allow the West to detect and intervene after Tehran has made a decision to break out but before it has succeeded. Analysts David Albright and Christina Walrond found - given the number and type of centrifuges at Natanz, Fordow, and any other centrifuge site Iran may now be constructing - that by 2014 Iran's "breakout times at critical capability would be so short that there simply would not be enough time to organize an international diplomatic or military response."

Jerusalem, Feb. 20 – Former IDF chief and Kadima Party leader Shaul Mofaz presented his own three-stage peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, calling Wednesday for a regional peace conference to help bring both parties back to the negotiating table.

“I believe that this year will be a very critical one,” said Mofaz told a foreign press briefing organized by The Israel Project. “The first goal of the state of Israel is to push forward the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”

“After the visit of President Obama we should call for a regional (peace) conference under the umbrella of the Quartet and the U.S. in order to have a restart of the negotiations between the two sides,” Mofaz said. “The conference should include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries willing to participate.”

Mofaz proposes the conference set the goals for an interim agreement that will set up a Palestinian state with provisional borders as negotiations continue for a permanent peace treaty. The most sensitive issues of Jerusalem and refugees will be left to the final third stage of a negotiated permanent settlement.

President Barak Obama is expected to visit Israel next month, and Mofaz said he met with the American leader last June in Washington, where Obama appeared to agree with his concept that negotiations should start on borders and security arrangements – two areas where Mofaz says Israel and the Palestinians are already close to agreement.

The plan is “a pragmatic way to implementing the two-state solution, or the vision of two states,” the Iranian-born Mofaz said.

His centrist Kadima Party lost considerable footing during the January elections, falling from being the largest block in the 120-seat Knesset with 29 seats under former party leader Tzipi Livni to being the smallest faction with only 2 seats.

Livni, who formed her own Movement Party that captured six seats, became the first politician to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is forming a coalition government. She is reportedly being tasked to head future peace talks. Having led the peace negotiations four years ago, Livni already has a positive relationship with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and senior officials of the Palestinian Authority.

Former IDF chief and Kadima Party leader Shaul Mofaz presented his own three-stage peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, calling Wednesday for a regional peace conference to help bring both parties back to the negotiating table.

“I believe that this year will be a very critical one,” said Mofaz told a foreign press briefing organized by The Israel Project. “The first goal of the state of Israel is to push forward the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”

“After the visit of President Obama we should call for a regional (peace) conference under the umbrella of the Quartet and the U.S. in order to have a restart of the negotiations between the two sides,” Mofaz said. “The conference should include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries willing to participate.”

Mofaz proposes the conference set the goals for an interim agreement that will set up a Palestinian state with provisional borders as negotiations continue for a permanent peace treaty. The most sensitive issues of Jerusalem and refugees will be left to the final third stage of a negotiated permanent settlement.

President Barak Obama is expected to visit Israel next month, and Mofaz said he met with the American leader last June in Washington, where Obama appeared to agree with his concept that negotiations should start on borders and security arrangements – two areas where Mofaz says Israel and the Palestinians are already close to agreement.

The plan is “a pragmatic way to implementing the two-state solution, or the vision of two states,” the Iranian-born Mofaz said.

His centrist Kadima Party lost considerable footing during the January elections, falling from being the largest block in the 120-seat Knesset with 29 seats under former party leader Tzipi Livni to being the smallest faction with only 2 seats.

Livni, who formed her own Movement Party that captured six seats, became the first politician to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is forming a coalition government. She is reportedly being tasked to head future peace talks. Having led the peace negotiations four years ago, Livni already has a positive relationship with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and senior officials of the Palestinian Authority.

Jerusalem, May 1 — Former Israeli Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni resigned today as a member of Knesset,but hinted that she'll be back.

Livni, who also led Israel's Kadima party – the country's largest – said in a press briefing she's "leaving the Knesset at this point, but I'm not retiring from public life," because Israel is "too dear to me." Livni easily ranks as one of the most outspoken women in Israeli politics. She was the second-ever woman foreign minister after the tenure of Golda Meir, Israel’s first woman prime minister.

Livni also said she had no regrets about pushing for Palestinian-Israeli peace. “There's an urgent need to reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinians as well as with the Arab world," she said.

Livni’s departure after 13 years in the Knesset comes a little more than a month after she lost leadership of the Kadima party to Shaul Mofaz, who previously served as defense minister and chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Mofaz won the Kadima primaries March 27 with 62 percent of the vote.

There are now 23 women in Knesset seats, out of a total of 120. Livni’s replacement in the Knesset is Kadima’s Yuval Zellner, who is next up on the party list.

Livni, 53, was leader of the opposition Kadima party until 2012. She was born in Israel and served as an Israel Defense Forces officer as well as in the Mossad (Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations).

She was elected to the Knesset in 1999 and served as a member of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; the Committee on the Status of Women; and chairwoman of the subcommittee responsible for legislation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Law.

As a Knesset member, Livni held portfolios in the committees on regional cooperation and agriculture; immigrant absorption; housing and construction; and justice and foreign affairs. In 2005, she left the Likud Party to help form the Kadima party along with other prominent Israeli politicians.

Livni served as foreign minister and vice prime minster in the 31st Government of Israel from 2006-2009 and as minister of justice from November 2006 through February 2007.